Better Together
by Know-It-All-2009
Summary: Tommy Oliver discovers that sometimes, it's better to go through life with a friend by your side than alone. Tommy/Hayley Friendship First Meeting


**Better Together**

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Summary: Thomas Oliver is finally figuring out that sometimes, he works better together with his friends by his side.

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**Authoress Note: **Anyone interested in a sequel that follows them through their college years together and then through the island blowing up?

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Tommy started at the letter that now held place on honor on his headboard that was stationed as was proper above his bed.

It had only been two weeks since he had received that letter and he had only received at the most twenty hours of sleep per week as his mind forced him to replay their entire time together as rangers.

_Their first meeting, which was, before Rita had kidnapped forced him to take the Dragon Dagger._

The tentative friendship they had formed before everything had gone to hell in a hand basket.

_Being turned into the Green Ranger against his will, the emotional trauma he had put Kimberly through during that time period_. Oh lord, when they discovered out _he _was their arch nemesis, that had been a blow straight to her heart, shifting back through his memories showed.

Then the spell had broken. He was free of Rita and Lord Zedd and that was something that he treasured as he remembered everything he had done to the people he had formed a tentative relationship and friendship with before she had come into the picture.

* * *

Becoming the green ranger on Zordon's team had been one of the best things that had happened to him. He found friends he could count on and that shared his enthusiasm for martial arts and protecting those that couldn't protect themselves.

Falling for Kimberly as the days passed as the friendship morphed into more than just a friendship as they spent more and more hours together defending Angel Grove from Lord Zedd and Rita as well as just attempting to pass high school.

Trying to pass high school and defend the world from evil was a feat in and of itself. Hours where spent training and working out to stay in top form, teaching karate at the Juice Bar, and studying for their classes s till late in the evening.

It was the perfect storm. Sometimes it made him wonder if the whole reason they had feelings for each other, if the whole reason they had started dating, was because they had both been chosen as rangers. That their bond to defeat the evil that plagued Angel Grove was the glue that held them together and without it, they fell apart.

* * *

Things had been great. Kimberly was training for the Pan Ams under a world renowned coach who was working her to death. Hours upon hours Kimberly was in the gym working on a floor routine, an uneven bar routine, a vault run, any free time she had was spent protecting the world or studying as hard as she could to keep her grades up.

* * *

The day finally came. Kimberly had made it to the Pan Ams but that meant she had to leave Angel Grove to spend her time training even harder and longer, and while it was possible to be a ranger from another city thanks to teleportation, she wouldn't have the leeway she had while here in Angel Grove.

She couldn't leave at the drop of a hat to answer the call of her morpher. She couldn't train in martial arts as much as she had, although her gymnastics skills had help in her fighting technique by a long run.

Falling off that beam, Katherine coming out from the control Rita had her under had all been a blessing in disguise.

Katherine had already known about the rangers and would be the perfect replacement, but Tommy sometime wondered if Kimberly had chosen Katherine _because _she knew Tommy could eventually fall for her.

To see Katherine conquer her fear of the diving board to convince Kimberly to get back on the balance beam had been amazing; that was just what Kimberly had been hoping for, or so he thought.

* * *

Watching Kimberly press her power coin into Katherine's hand had been hard, harder than he could have ever imagined.

The first few months had been wonderful…but then the phone calls started coming in a lot more infrequently, the letters started coming more spread out.

Kimberly was training harder than ever.

Tommy was pushing himself harder than ever in his training and rangering.

Then the letter came that shattered his world.

Two weeks later he still had to force himself to get out of bed and go to school or to go to the Juice Bar to train the kids that took his self-defense class. Or worst of all, to put the suit back on and go on as if she had never been there.

He didn't want Katherine to replace Kimberly but that seemed to be what Kimberly had hoped for , or at least it seemed that way to him.

* * *

Time moves on no matter how hard we want to pause our lives at a certain time. Trini died the summer that he was supposed to start working on his doctorates coursework for paleontology.

Making the drive back to Angel Grove with Hayley at his side, holding his hand and not complaining as he squeezed it tighter than he probably should have. He hadn't known Hayley long, in fact he had only known her all of two days.

He had been moving into the on campus apartments held for Doctorate students and had bumped into her in the coffee shop, which caused him to insist on buying her a cup of coffee to replace the one she had lost.

When he had gotten the call about Trini, she had still been there, in the coffee shop with him as he gave her such a broken look that she grabbed his hand and dragged him to her apartment before allowing him to cry, which he did as soon as the door was closed behind them.

What bothered her was that not only was Trini, their first yellow ranger dead and not in the line of duty, but that he had heard through the grape vine that Kimberly was going to be there. The one original ranger that Tommy had avoided like the plague.

He had told Hayley as much, minus the rangering, he didn't think it was right to let her in on that secret just yet. The drive to Angel Grove had been filled with music, talk of his paleontology degree, talk of Hayley's computer programming Master's degree and her job at the coffee shop which she started Monday, which was when both their classes started.

* * *

As it turns out there had been nothing to worry about. Kimberly had not been able to make it which didn't surprise Tommy, or Hayley for that matter from what she had heard about Kimberly.

The drive back Tommy was a lot more open, a lot more relaxed and all because one girl had not shown up at the funeral.

"Why are you majoring in paleontology?" Hayley asked as she downed her third cup of coffee for the day, giving him a curious look.

"The history of dinosaurs has always fascinated me. It started with a high school science teacher that made us do a report and it just spiraled from there. Why computers for you?" He asked, taking a sip of his coffee before sneaking a glance her way without having to full take his eyes off the road.

"They come naturally to me; as naturally as breathing, although I am taking a few science courses outside of what is required." Hayley said, thinking back to her First Aid and CPR course that started Monday, she was looking forward to that one.

"That's awesome. Do you want to come over when we get back and go over our schedules, see if we can mesh any of our courses together…that is if you want to." He said, worried that he had over stepped his boundaries.

Being a ranger turned a person into a very good judge of character usually and he saw a lot of potential in the woman next to him.

Hayley Ziktor gave him a searching look before giving him a grin.

"Only if there's coffee involved. I start work at the on campus coffee shop Monday." She said, earning her a grin from the man next to her.

* * *

It had been years since that fateful letter had been sent, but as he watched Hayley move through his apartment as if she lived there, it felt natural to him. Disappearing into his bedroom he grabbed the letter that was kept inside a book on his bookcase, looking at it for a long time before he entered the living room, sitting on the couch as Hayley handed him a coffee which he took with a far way look in his eyes.

"Mind if I ask what that is?" Hayley said, motioning to the letter he held, which Tommy obediently held out to her as she took it.

When she finished skimming it, she folded it before setting it back down on the coffee table and taking a deep drag from her cup as she sat down next to him and then turned to look at him.

"Is that why I've always seen you alone since I started here?" Hayley asked, taking another sip of her coffee.

"Yes, I was actually debating about throwing it out today." Tommy said, giving her a sidelong look before returning to his internal musings for a moment.

"If you feel you're ready for it then do it. If you don't think you're ready then don't." she said simply before pulling her school schedule up on her computer before showing it to Tommy.

"I'm in Calculus IV with you; I'm also in Creative Writing. I needed a second minor for my doctorates. Miss Hayley I think this is the start of beautiful friendship." He said, raising his cup to clink against hers as they fell into a comfortable silence as Tommy finally started to heal, years after the letter was sent, all thanks to a rather stranger woman he had spilled coffee all over.


End file.
